Gerringong with Gracie

is where I will be for Christmas! This is my new little niece. Will be spending chrissy by the beach with the family in Gerringong and then heading to Tassie for the arrival of the Tadpoole. Babies everywhere! Other than that have been delighting in hanging out in Canberra! Merry Christmas!

If Christchurch was any sleepier it would be comatose

I really don't have much to write about Christchurch... its a nice enough little town, but my is it sleepy. You know in Australia on a late Sunday evening in say, Autumn, when all the shops are shutting and there is hardly anyone in the street....? well its like that any time of the day any day of the week here! And this is the biggest place on the south island... my friends tell me that indeed everywhere else has been even sleepier. Thanks god I'm here only for a couple of days because this place has taken relaxation to a new level... anyway, the real reason I came here was to catch up with Gabriel, my old friend (of 10 years already!) from when I lived in Spain, and that has been very nice, wandering around the town and going out to the beach for lunch by the seaside (a bit of excitement provided by the attack seagulls nearby). Flying home this afternoon, a couple of hours in Sydney and then home late tonight... to stay! hooray! hmmm, will have to blog from Canby from now on!! maybe nearly as exciting as Christchurch!

Delightful New Zealand – the antidote?

I love New Zealand. If I were to ever leave Canberra for another Australasian city, I think it might be for Auckland. I’m sure my dad might baulk at that, claiming he left that rainy place for sunshinier life for us, but rain and all, I like it. When it’s sunny it’s divinely beautiful and when it’s grey and rainy it’s kind of cosy and comforting. And then after so many years of traveling to strange and foreign lands, meeting new people all the time, it is so nice to be visiting somewhere to which I am permanently connected despite the years of absence, to have dinner in the town I was born, to drive past the house my parents built (with a little help from my uncle) and to hang out with people who have known me and loved me my entire life, since the day I was born. My four days in Auckland have been the perfect antidote to my earlier adventure travels, simple, easy, relaxing and beautiful. I went for walks, runs, lunches and dinners, afternoon naps, visited the beach and the bush and the countryside with all the sheepies and spent time with the aunties and uncles and cousins. My favourite thing was going to see my cousin playing soccer. In a life where I am lucky to work with the same team for more than 15 days before changing place and teams, I was delighted to see the same team that I played touch rugby with when I lived there as a teenager still going strong and together 15 years on, and still up for a beer after the game. There is something very appealing about that life.

Disastrous holiday….

Warning. Long wingeing blog ahead….
I now remember why I don’t go in much for adventure holidays. First because there is often a little too much adventure and not enough holiday and second because it just feels a bit too much like a work trip. So my one week adventure holiday in Bolivia planned for the last week I think was fair to say was fairly disastrous. Cursed in fact one might say. I finished work on Wednesday and was due to fly to Rurrenabaque (Rurre for short) in the Amazon basin on Thursday. I then had a five day tour booked, 3 days in the savannahs (pampas), 2 days in the jungle (selva), with the plan to fly back on Wednesday and take my international flight Thursday. So, the first Thursday arrives and I am informed that my flight has been cancelled because, low and behold, its raining. The plane can’t land when its raining they tell me because the landing strip in Rurre is only dirt, no tarmac, so any rain and flights are off. They tell me to call at 8am the next day to find out when the next flight is. The travel agent says don’t worry I can still do 3 days pampas, 1 day selva. 8am the next morning I call, call back at 12 they say, at 12 its call back at 1, at 1 its call back at 2, you see how its going. Couldn’t do anything else useful with my day. At 2pm they finally say yes a flight will go, be at the airport at 3 for a 4pm flight. Hooray. Success, or so we think. The plane departs at 4.30pm and it’s a small 20 seater with single rows down each side. We fly up over the Andes, so close in our little plane you can touch them, and then we head into clouds and you can’t see anything. 40 minutes later we start a bumpy descent, still in the clouds but this time the clouds are seeping into the plane, cold mist is swirling in through the floor and the roof. The plane starts bumping up and down and we along with it, so rough our heads nearly hit the roof some times. I have a new appreciation for seat belts in planes. Suddenly we pop out of the clouds and there is a very large mountain next to the window, beautiful and green and jungle covered, but oh way too close to comfort. It’s raining a little. The pilots announce we are going to land and down we go skimming the tops of the palm trees and next thing we know we are going up again…. Up up up… until the pilots say, ladies and gentlemen it was raining on the runway, so we will be going back to La Paz! Swearing emanates from the passengers (well me at least). We arrive back in La Paz 7pm and I go out and drown my sorrows with a friend over a couple of Pisco Sours and decide whether to cut my losses and what else to do with my holiday if I abandon Rurre. By the morning however, day 3, I have some renewed determination and I figure bugger it, I’ll try again. I’ll still have 3 days pampas, but then I am advised if I want to be sure to make it back for my international flight I should return a day earlier and cut a day off the end, so now my tour is down from 5 days to 2 days…. I go anyway. Finally on Day 3 I get a flight at midday and off we go to Rurre, we arrive safely and it is nice and sunny, Rurre is a tiny little tourist town on the edge of the Amazon, surrounded by beautiful lush mountains and on the side of the River Beni. Lots of tourist and tour groups coming and going. Some of my fellow plane passengers and I went out to celebrate our arrival with some beer and pizza before setting off the next morning on the tour to the pampas. Next morning head off on the tour to the pampas, weather is good, the trip takes 3 hours by road to reach the river where we head up to a campsite. We get there at lunchtime and then the holiday part actually starts… I’ll tell you about that separately though, right now I’m indulging in my tale of woe. After just 24 hours in the pampas, the tour has to start the journey back to Rurre at midday the next day… So off I go back again to Rurre. First bad bit of the trip back is my group is changed from really nice people (who are staying for 3 days) to a group with a really annoying bunch of young catalan girls who proceed to annoy the hell of out of me the whole way back. Once we’re off the river and back on the road, the 9 of us and two tour guides get in a crappy old vehicle with no air and no suspension and drive the 3 hours back down the bumpy road to spine numbing effect. We arrive back in Rurre and its still sunny and I see the afternoon plane loading at the airport as we drive past. I think, maybe I should get off here and see if there is space on today’s plane, in case there is a problem tomorrow, but the van keeps driving and I see the plane head off overhead. I get back to Rurre and confirm my flight for the next day. 3pm they say and don’t worry, there will be sun for the next week, no problems with flights, the weather is lovely. I book a half tour jungle tour to make the best of my remaining time. That night I don’t get very much sleep. First a bunch of drunk Israelis are letting of fire crackers outside the rooms. Then at about 1am in the morning it starts….. the rain… oh my the rain, it was serious torrential rain, that heavy and continuous kind you just know is not going to stop for a week. So I lay awake most the night thinking bugger, how am I going to get back in time for my flight. I really don’t want to miss my flights and be stuck in Rurre in the rain for an underdetermined time. The next morning I get up and go to the airline office who confirm that there is no chance any planes will fly today and probably not for a week…. I run into a German girl in the rain and she too needs to get an international flight, so we agree to rent a jeep together which is the only other way back to La Paz, that or the local bus for 18 hours. The trick is the jeep is expensive ($350USD) and we need to find other people to share the cost. After an hour or two of cruising the streets in the pouring rain pouncing on anyone looking as desperate as us we have a posse of 6, me, German girl number 1, German girl number 2, an Australian couple one of whom turns out went to my high school and a French/Spanish gentleman of 62 years old and good humour which is fortunate for the two German girls cos it turns out they are pretty skint of cash so the nice Frenchman bank rolls them the way the La Paz. So, 10am we have our posse and I am keen to go as its supposed to be a 12 hour drive, and the last 3 hours is the “Death Road” which I don’t want to be doing in the middle of the night (though that seems inevitable). But first German girl number 1 has some stuffing around to do for about an hour, then at 11am German girl number 2 realises she’s lost her camera and we spend the next hour looking and trying to convince her that no its not really feasible for her to phone that remote little village on the road to the pampas to see if anyone found it…. Finally at about 12 noon we pile in the jeep, again poor suspension, little leg room or seat room and no pillows and start off on what is promised to be a 12 hour drive. After about just 2 hours we stop for lunch. The driver has been informed that there have been landslides ahead so we should eat now as we don’t know how long we’ll have to wait for the landslides to clear. It was then as I sat down in the rain in a crappy eatery with the most disgusting of toilets with a bunch of strangers to eat standard Bolivian lowlands fare of fried chicken and rice that I had flash backs to work trips and realized the irony of choosing to take a holiday which was just like a work trip… We finish lunch and go back to the car only to find the driver has the wheels off and is adjusting the breaks. Never a comforting indicator of safety… After another half hour we hit the road again, with the smell of bad breaks and black smoke in our wake. We start passing landslides. The rain has been so torrential that the rainy season has not even started properly and there are landslides all along the road. This does not bode well for later in the season disaster wise… again this is starting to feel reminiscent of work trips in which landslides feature heavily. It also does not bode well for us… but for a while most of the landslides are being cleared and we can pass. Then at about 5pm we hit the big one. A whole portion of the road has been washed away and there is no way around it whatsoever. It will be 2 days before it is mended they tell us. No way forward, only way is back. Bugger that I say. No way in hell am I going back another 5 hours to sit in Rurre to wait for the rain to clear while my flights home leave without me. We go down and inspect the gap and I see some kids playing down the bottom. Well, if they got down there we can too I say. Let’s cross on foot and find a new form of transport on the other side. Just one problem, there is another landslide about 1km down the road. Oh well, we’ll just have to cross that one too. So we unload the jeep, get our packs and start to climb down into the path of the landslide and up the other side, of course to the amusement of all the locals thinking we extranjeros are crazy of course. So off we go, we make it past the two landslides and in our one stroke of luck on the other side of the second landslide is a nice older man and his wife sitting in an empty jeep waiting to cross. Given they can’t cross for two days we make them an offer to take us to La Paz which they accept with glee and an extraordinary price and off we go. They just first have to go home and unload their fruit boxes off the roof so our luggage can go on top. Its just 40 minutes away they say…. 3 hours later we reach there house and unload their fruit boxes which means we can now have a seat each instead of on top of each other and recommence the journey to La Paz. The good thing is that our driver is an older gentleman and very safe and cautious… a good thing given we are now driving the very unsafe roads of Bolivia through the middle of the night. So onwards we go on what seems like an interminable drive across Bolivia, but thankfully without further incident. Without incident, but not without the fear of incident. At around 3am in the morning we finally hit Coroico, which marks the beginning of “The Death Road”. People who have traveled in Bolivia will know the death road because hundreds of tourist choose to cycle down it, but I suspect few choose to drive it in a car at 3am… It is called the death road because it has the highest number of fatalities each year and is completely terrifying. Its about an hour of a small, narrow road winding up the mountains, with sheer drops of an indescribable height on the side, with no barriers between you and the drop, its just the road and the abyss…. The climb is admittedly spectacular. It’s where the lowlands of Bolivia, leading from the Amazon basin dramatically climb up into these tropical mountains, lush and green and jungle covered until they then transform themselves into the snow capped and humongous Andes mountains. At 3 in the morning the view was different, dark but still spectacular. It was a full moon which lit the view for us, below the river, the valleys and crevasses were filled with mist and the mountains we black and looming above. And the in the moonlight the abyss at the edge of the road remained truly terrifying. It was one of those moments where you are at once breathless from the astounding beauty and at the same time unable to breathe from fear. I felt completely sick with my heart in my mouth the whole hour or so up that winding road but in complete awe of the experience. Finally by about 4am we made it up there and I was very grateful for our slow and cautious driver that we were at the top and not over the edge. I dozed off for about half and hour and awoke to find the car parked on the side of the road next to a huge snow covered mountain. It was freezing, 4.30am and we had about an hour to go until we reached La Paz. So close… but yet so far. The effort of the death road had taken it out of the driver and he had decided it was time for a nap, had pulled over and was out to it. No sign of waking up in a hurry. We all sat there in a dilemma… of course he needed to sleep, but we were so close and wanted to finally arrive…. Finally German Girl number one reached the point where she had only an hour and a half to make it to the airport to reach her plane and so the driver was awoken and on we went through the beautiful snow covered Andes until we descended into La Paz. I finally reached my hotel at 6am after 19 hours in the jeep. I sleep until 12, reconfirm my flights out of the country do some last minute shopping and go for dinner, more wine and lots of laughter with some friends and at 5.30 this morning hopped up and headed for the airport again, and now here I am in Santiago waiting for the plane to New Zealand. So, there was beauty and there was plenty of adventure in my holiday, but there was also a good amount of frustration and a feeling that things were just never going to go my way. There was not much of a holiday in there and ultimately in my 7 days of holiday, there was 24 hours of holiday and 6 days of just trying to get there and back… in the end probably not worth it but this is the way we learn isn’t it. So the lessons learned? I decided that perhaps it was just fate reminding me that you can’t always have things go your way, some things are just beyond your control and the only way to deal with such frustrations is to accept it and ride through it until it is finally over, survive it. Lesson No 2, never plan a trip to Rurrenabaque unless you have an unlimited amount of time to sit and wait for the sun to shine and the planes to fly!

The beautiful Isla del Sol

Last weekend I went to the Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca for the weekend with a group of people from work. It was so much fun and such a beautiful place. I went to the Isla del Sol earlier in the year for a day trip and I thought it would be great to go back to and stay for a while, so this time we at least went and stayed overnight. It's hard to describe its beauty, because even though it is visually beautiful, its great magic is in the ambience, there is just something divine about it. We did a bit of walking around (or should say Up) the island and then at sunset went to a point at the top with a bottle of wine. There wasn't a colourful sunset because of the clouds, but instead a beautiful silver and blue evening. From the top of the hill to the east were the white snowy mountains, to the west all silver and shimmery in the sunset was Peru and ahead the beautiful colours of Copacabana. Our little hostel looked out towards the west to Peru. Once night fell there is not much to do on the island but we made ourselves cosy in the little restaurant of the hostel sitting on llama wool cushion, eating trout from the Lake and polished off a few more bottles of wine... after about 4 bottles between the 5 of us we proceeded to drive away the rest of the customers with our laughter!

Just hanging out in La Paz

Hello hello. I am in Bolivia and have up til now just been hanging out in La Paz, which you all already know that I just love. So not much adventures to recount as have just been working and hanging out here, went for karaoke last night and going dancing tonight, going to Lake Titicaca for the weekend and then starting a bigger adventure end of next week at which time will have more to tell. Here is a photo of me picking up some strawberries on the way home from work.

Singapore... I have a serious problem

Well before even wondering what my problem is I am sure you are first wondering what the hell am I doing in Singapore? I didn't quite look at my itinerary home very well other than the departure date and it was not until I was boarding my flight to Singapore that the confused check in clerk pointed out that I was in fact scheduled to get off a flight Bahrain-Singapore-Sydney direct only to wait 11 hours for the next flight to Sydney. With this news I realised I have never actually left the airport in Singapore and so may as well make the most of it and spent the day walking around the various sites of Singapore, from Chinatown to Little India, to lunch by the river. It was of course during this escapade that I realised how serious my little problem has become.... yes, the shopping addiction. I am ashamed to tell how much money I managed to spend in a few short transit hours. I just couldnt control myself. The saleswoman was just way too effective and it seems some part of my brain didnt care how ridiculous my purchases were. The end result...? I have a nice new piece of furniture being shipped home to Sydney... what was I thinking??? I need help... Am now recovering from the shock of my own actions by living on the free foods of the Qantas Club lounge awaiting the flight to Sydney, home in the morning and will be banned from any purchases for ever after.

Dancing and Ayman

Well after my last blog and the long silence in between I figure perhaps I need to tell you some more cheery news. Hence my two topics of choice today: Dancing and Ayman.

First, on dancing: Let me let you in on a little secret. Despite, or perhaps in spite of the war, Beirut is a fabulous city. The city is stunning and the bars here are second to none, and ever since the first night of the cease fire when we cautiously ventured out into a street of bars and restaurants, where other people were also nervously coming back out on to the streets, the bars have been pumping. Any night of the week you can head down to an area full of style and glamour and fun and fantastic music and dance the night away. Now, given the demands of work I can’t confess to doing that every night… but I have indeed managed to get in a fair bit of dancing in since the cease fire came into effect and have been truly admiring this fantastic side of Beirut. It definitely is right up there in terms of happening cities of the world in every respect!

Second, on Ayman: Ayman is our driver. A colleague the other day said he is like a caricature. His face is so full of character and so is his personality. He’s a little bit crazy and a lot funny. He doesn’t speak a lot of English but is a determined teacher of Arabic, each day teaching me something new like the different between Hamam and Hamam (toilet vs pigeon). He jokes all the time and plays the music loud in the car and insists we dance to it and takes me grocery shopping and runs around helping me find things and jokes about turning me in to the military checkpoints so I can’t leave the country but instead stay. The thing I love about my trips is the wonderful people I meet and the small daily life things like going shopping with someone crazy and sharing jokes and all those simple things and good people and friendships that just start to develop when normally I am about to leave. There are lots of them here as everywhere of which Ayman is just one very amusing example.

And on that note, in true form, its time to leave… The good side of which of course is I get to come home to all the good people at home and enjoy some simple daily life pleasures in my own town. I leave here on Wednesday, spending some time in Jordan for both work and pleasure (work meetings followed by long weekend at Dead Sea Spa resort… life’s tough sometimes, but hey I earned it). Will be home around Wednesday 14th I think. Looking forward to seeing you all, especially my bro's new house. Not that he ever reads this blog...

Bastards

Actually I would like start that title with a word begining with F but for the children reading I will refrain. I can't begin to tell you the outrage I feel about what is going on here, about what goes on in any war, but which for today is happening here. As the news reports that the ceasefire has been agreed, at least 20 large bombs dropped all in quick succession in the southern suburbs, the most bombs in quick sucession I have ever heard or felt within the space of about 60 seconds. How many people did that kill? how many children? A couple of days ago I met a young boy just 13 years old who's brother was killed in the bomb on a residential area about 5 days ago. I felt that bomb. He did too. He is completely ripped to shreds, to see him was so shocking, but he was the survivor. His brother was not. A 10 week old baby was not. 1000 other people are not. I am fine, but every time you feel and hear these bombs people are being killed in the most horrific way. The world should be outraged at this. Never believe the bullshit of the people who are complicit in this.

In Beirut

Just ten months ago I was in Beirut for a weekend on R&R. Here I am again under very different circumstances but this time actually my hotel room is nicer and I have a nice sea view of the Mediterranean. so far all well!

Bahrain via Narooma

Well about four weeks ago I was sitting in the Bahrain airport on my way to Yemen thinking thank goodness it was my last traveling for a little while…. Or so I thought. But of course after a brief 13 days at home in Canberra and here I find myself again in the Bahrain airport waiting for a flight onwards to Jordan. Who would have thought? Anyway, its true, I am going to Jordan to help with preparations for a potential assessment and response in Lebanon and Syria. Don’t know where I’ll be and for how long, but I would say 8 weeks in the region is a safe bet. Glad that I got to catch up with those of you that I did and sorry that I didn’t see those of you I didn’t while home.

While I was home, I did manage to pop down to Narooma for the weekend with Dan, Deana and Ruby. Here is a photo of Ruby which mum has specifically requested to see how big she is already. It was an absolutely beautiful weekend with lovely light sunshining on through the few clouds which were floating around. I didn’t quite go swimming though… a bit chilly for that. It was lovely and relaxing though and just what I needed before heading off again. There really are not many places in the world as beautiful as the south coast. We’re so lucky to have it and I’m looking forward to spending more time there next year!

Ok, well, will try and post next adventures from Jordan. blogging from lebanon may not be as easy... he he, just kidding mum.....

ok, my friend Humberto complained that he didn't get a special mention in the Central America blog, which he did deserve given we worked together non stop the entire time I was in Central America, so here is a photo of me and Humberto at the airport in Nicaragua on our way to Honduras. Gracias Humberto por un viaje tan divertido.

Jewels, the sea and g&t's

I admit there was a very brief moment when I thought perhaps flying to Egypt for the weekend was a little over indulgent….but nah! It was perfect and totally lazy! A great way to start some R&R. Stayed at Kate’s house in Cairo and had a lazy time, went to my favourite jewellery shop and spent a small fortune then went out for dinner to eat yummy middle eastern food and smoke shisha. The next day, slept in and had a late breakfast and then about lunch time we headed out to the Red Sea for an overnight stay at a resort and spa. More hard work involved of swimming at beach, going for facials and massage at the spa and lying by pool, with a few G&Ts to end the day. Was just lovely. Here’s a picture of me and Kate at dinner, and a bit of Mohammed’s arm in the foreground, though he insisted we cut him out of the picture as he reckons appearing on a blog might be bad for his image!

To Egypt!

To anyone who I told i would be home on the 8th, Im sorry I lied. I am leaving yemen tonight and going to Egypt for the weekend. Will be home on the 10th instead.

Pix from Yemen

Magical Yemen

Well here I am in Yemen for the second time and I’m pleased to say it is every bit as magical and wonderful as I remember it to be. The streets and buildings of old Sana’a are just beautiful, as is the market filled with silver, spices, fruits, scarves and daggered men and veiled women. Having now been to Damascus, they’re actually very similar in the old cities. And also like Damascus, the people are so lovely and friendly, not jaded by too many tourists I think so there is a special kindness and openness and friendliness here. So ironic that Syria and Yemen are up at the top of the apparent ‘world evil’ list according to our stupid leaders, because their people and old cities are gentle, beautiful and delightful. (though admittedly with some cultural quirks….).

Yemen was the first ever place I traveled with CARE back in early 2002, so it’s very nice to come back again, and an extra nice treat is that my German friend Diana who I met back in 2002 is also here again, so I have had someone to go on adventures with. Yesterday we went to Wadi Dah which is the palace of the last Imam, built on top of a rock in the middle of a Wadi. On the way we stopped at a rock which is a lookout over the wadi, and it’s called the wedding rock because all of the grooms and their parties go there before the wedding as part of their celebration. Of course, wedding celebrations here involve lots of gunfire, and they don’t muck around with their guns here, they’re no old fashioned rifle, more like your AK47, which still always manages to make me jump about a mile high when it goes off near by (just before ducking of course!). The groom later gets to sit in a big chair decorated with hearts and fake flowers which go lovely with the weaponry!

My hotel room is in a guest house in the old city and I can look out my window from my bed over the old city and listen to the sounds outside. I have to confess there is one thing about Yemen I don’t like, and I apologise for the blasphemy, but the call to prayer here is just bloody awful! In most Muslim countries these days the Call to Prayer is automated, so you get a nice, standardized sound which normally I find very beautiful and love hearing at 4 or 5 in the morning… In Amman I used to get up and look out the window at the mosque and I’d find it very soothing. But here, no such luck. The Call to Prayer is still done the old fashioned way by a guy at the mosque with a loud speaker system. That may sound quaint but let me tell you its not, because can you imagine how many mosques are in the old city alone in Sana’a? about 50 I reckon, and one each side of my hotel so the sounds come right in at each hour of the day and they’re not in sync, each going with their own rhythm, including the 4am prayers, and let me tell you that these guys are not chosen for the lovely sound of their voices. What’s more, in most other countries, the call to prayer happens at the scheduled times of the day and people go off and pray and that’s it until the next scheduled prayer time. But no, not these guys, it seems they have a free reign to do with the loud speaker system whatever they want and whenever they want, so it seems they break it out any time of the day and keep going for hours…. Last night at about midnight one of them seemed to be doing a bad imitation of karaoke for about an hour just as I was trying to get to sleep…

The worst thing of course is that such an awful noise can block out the very beautiful sounds of the city, and yesterday during about a 5 minute break in the sermon from the guy next door I was given a great treat. I was in my room and from my window I could hear women singing and clapping and ululating in what must have been a wedding party. It sounded just like that scene when all the women are singing before the wedding in Monsoon Wedding (ok, admittedly different culture but you get the idea). It was fantastic.

Tonight I had yet a different cultural experience. I went with Diana to the German embassy to watch the German vs Argentina soccer game. I confess that I think this was officially the first time I have managed to sit through and pay attention to an entire soccer game! I know why I don’t though, it’s all just too emotional! Yet again my team lost… this was the tricky thing of course that I was going for Argentina but couldn’t quite admit that among 100 beer drinking cheering Germans. All of us non Germans were commenting that we’ve never seen such animation in a group of Germans before! It was very fun and nice to see the Germans so emotional after their win, but I was very sad to see Argentina out.

Well there’s lots more I could say but I better stop rambling for now… maybe I’ll write another Yemen chapter another day

Roatan

The best of Central America

There are some advantages to having to spend 10 hours in Los Angeles Airport waiting for a plane, one of them being that there is plenty of time to catch up on everything I have been too busy to do lately... at least in terms of virtual responsibilities. So where have I been and what have I been doing. As per my last couple of blogs, since I left Bolivia I have been in Central America doing a little tour El Salvador-Nicaragua-Honduras-El Salvador. The purpose of said tour was to work with our Central America on their preparedness systems. It was a lot of long hours of office type work, so none of the grand adventures I’m afraid that you lot like to hear about, but from an intellectual and professional point of view it was actually really interesting work for me and I have actually enjoyed it quite a lot (being the boring workaholic sod that I am when it comes down to it). There are two great things that are worth talking about on this trip. First, I know I have dished the highly north americanised cultural landscape of Central America aplenty, so I won’t do that again. But what really redeems and makes Central America is the lovely people. There are a lot of really great people I work with here who I really like and who have made my few weeks here fun and enjoyable despite not doing much other than work. So I think it is worth honouring them in this here blog.

The second thing that made this trip fantastic was my little weekend visit to Roatan, an island in the Caribbean in the Bay Islands of Honduras. The Bay Islands sit off the second biggest reef system next to our own Great Barrier Reef which comes down from Belize to Honduras. The Bay Islands in the Caribbean were once occupied by the British, the Spanish, and at one stage were occupied completely by Pirates, before finally being made part of Honduras. The result is a pretty fabulous mix I must say. English and Spanish are the two official languages and the culture is a mix of English, Latino and Caribbean which suits me just fine. Think reggae on the beach, salsa in the bars, beers in the ocean, and being able to speak which ever of my two languages I feel like at the time. Then the place itself is beautiful. Laid back, underdeveloped, drop out and relax kind of place with stunning beaches, lush green landscape and beautiful snorkeling. Paradise. Its definitely on my list of potential places to run away and drop out in… if I ever go missing you could start looking there…

So anyway, after a busy, whirly wind trip as usual, here I am on my way home to Australia. It has been 8 weeks since I left home and I have been to Italy, England, Switzerland, Bolivia, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras, and I have to say I have loved it and am feeling pretty good. Not my usual tired self at the end of a long assignment, though if anyone tries calling me in the next couple of days I’m sure I will be very jet lagged! I am off again on Friday for Yemen for two weeks, which I know is a bit insane, but its just the way it worked out and there are some extenuating circumstances. I’ll be back from Yemen around 10 July, and really hoping to have some quality time at home for a little bit to see you all. Until then, I’ll put some photos of Roatan up for you.

Home Tuesday, Yemen Friday

hi beloveds, leaving el salvador in about 7 hours, will be home early Tuesday morning. Back for 3 days then to Yemen on Friday. I may not see you all but at least you know where i am for a minute....

Pirates of the Carribean....

I've been slack and not yet written of my current location (Honduras) ... what can I say but i've been busy working all week and going to tropical islands in the Carribean for the weekend. ha ha ha... will write more later!! :)

Next stop Managua of Nicaragua

Left El Salvador and moved on to Nicaragua. So far have just been working so nothing interesting to report, though work is fine. I’m here until Tuesday morning and then moving straight on again to Honduras. Sadly I have loads of work to do over the weekend so it looks like I won’t get out to see much of Nicaragua (ok, writing this blog is the evidence of my procrastination!!). It seems a lot poorer here than in El Salvador, though still a healthy does of the cultural imperialism of McDonalds and Burger King. Nonetheless, the place has a good feel to it so I think I like it. It’s interesting because the entire place was destroyed in 1972 by an earthquake so pretty much all the buildings here are new, and all single level, so for a capital city there is barely any tall buildings at all in the whole city. It seems nice and sleepy and pleasant, although apparently its not really because my colleagues are very sure to lock the cars doors as soon as we’re in and are a bit nervous about getting out and walking around in certain parts of town. I’m told there are great places to go dancing but looks like won’t be a chance for that, though I’ve been promised I’ll be taken dancing in Honduras. The climate here is quite nice- bloody hot but a nice dry heat which I like, despite it being tropical its not humid for some reason, though there are regular lightning storms and in fact there is one right now outside so flashes of lightning and thunder is rolling in and the power keeps going on and off… anyway, guess I better get back to work so maybe tomorrow I can take some time off to lay by the pool at least (yeah right…).

San Salvador

Now to the present... left Bolivia and am now in San Salvador. Will be here til Wednesday morning and then off to Nicaragua and Honduras, then back to El Salvador (that covers about the next three weeks). Most of you know I actually was a little disappointed with central america last time I was here, and I confess that on second glance, I'm not sure my opinion has changed. The people are really nice, and i love the tropical feel and the natural parts of the landscape are stunning, but the cultural landscape is dominated by shopping malls, big cars and fast food outlets. I went to try and get a few things from the shops today and the mall was awful- and I am generally not too anti mall, i like a bit of a shop anywhere really, but it was noisy and it was very difficult to get there by foot and i just thought, god help us if this is the way the world is going! Anyway, other than that, its not so bad to be here... the hotel is nice and the people are nice and I am looking forward to going to the office tomorrow and catching up with my friends from last time I was here.

Bolivia by Horse

Next was two weeks in my beloved Bolivia. It was lovely as usual. Nothing particularly exciting to report but its just nice. Did a few fun things while there including going to a 'dance party' which involved the basement of someones house, beers and two cuban dance instructors and was basically a group dance lesson where you get to drink beer in between songs and laugh alot and be silly which was very fun. I also went horseriding one day which was beautiful.

Lake Burley Geneva

Next stop was Geneva. Had four days there for work. It was nice to see my team all in one place, and also Sue Graves and Vic Wheeler were in town so got to go and catch up with them which was fun. The weather was grey and rainy until the last day I was there, when I took the opportunity to walk along the lake. It was lovely with people out drinking along the waterfront, lovely spring flowers in bloom and even people sailing. Lake Geneva has a fountain the same as Canberra’s and Sue had said she and her sister used to jokingly call it Lake Burley Geneva… so it was fitting that while I was walking along a sailing boat with an Australian flag was cruising under the fountain, just in case I was missing Canby!

London with Hot Dog and Cathy

Sorry for being a terribly slack blogger this trip. Can't use work as an excuse this time, it has been busy enough but less busy than usual, but have actually managed to fit a tiny bit of having a life in too. So anyway, I will do a blog for each country to stick with tradition. Starting with London... I mentioned that I went back there and went out on the town with Hot Dog Dave and Cathy, so here is a bit of a photo of Davy to prove it...

I love Bolivia

Hello from Bolivia. This is a test

Sardinia

ok, photos are below. It's hard to believe there could be quite so many beautiful blue beaches! Sardinia was just lovely. The amazing coastline is relatively undeveloped which makes it really nice. We did not very much at all except lay on beaches, go on a boat trip, eat pasta, seafood, gelati and drink loads of wine (not very good for diet!). All in all a relaxing and delightful holiday. Went back to London for a few days and caught up with Hot Dog Dave- went out on the town with him and Cathy and then sneaked off to Geneva with a bit of a hangover! In Geneva now for work until Friday and then on to Bolivia.

Holiday in Sardinia, then London, now Geneva

London, Cathy's House

Well here I am on the road again, first stop London. Have arrived safely at Cathy's house and tomorrow early we set off for five days in Sardinia. Hooray!

Nearly home...

Yes, less than 24 hours and I will be home. Yay! Am in the lounge at LAX on the stop on my New York to Sydney flight. New York was fabulous. Only problem was it was freezing and raining on Saturday just when we planned to do lots of sight seeing. We braved it for half the day and then decided the Sex and the City Tour would show us all the best things and also allow us to travel round the city on a nice heated bus. Great choice. Got to stand on Carrie's front door step, drink a cosmopolitan in Aiden and Steve's bar and all sorts of other fun things. Had a lovely time with Leslie and went out to where she lives on Long Island. Today was lovely and sunny (though still cold) so we went out to a park by the water and it was very nice and relaxing. Anyway, that's all for now. Home 10am Tuesday morning.

Goodbye Bolivia, Hello New York

6 am and am at the airport waiting for my flight. Leaving Bolivia this morning and heading for four days in New York. I'm always happy to be on the way home, but I have loved Bolivia so there is a little sadness at leaving. After 7 weeks its always just when you are starting to feel settled in. And I have loved speaking spanish so I will miss having to go back to english! Anyway, New York lies ahead, hopefully will have time to tell you how it is and have some more and different adventures!

I’m sorry New Zealand….

I was going to come and visit you on my way home from Bolivia, but instead…. I’m going to New York!!! Woohoooo!!! yes, I am very excited!! (thanks Jock…) I’ve of course never been to New York before. I’ll be there for 4 days- two days in a meeting on gender and emergencies, and then 2 days hanging out with my dear old New Yorker friend Leslie who I learned Spanish with in Spain ten years ago (and who I haven’t seen since!). So, I know it has been a long time since I’ve been to NZ, but I hope you’ll forgive me this time round. And yes, as promised to Jen, I will endeavour to sample a few cosmopolitans while there. I’m so excited!! Oh, yes and for my dear folk back home…. I am coming home, should be there on 11 April, in time for easter. Looking forward to seeing you all! PS. Bolivia continues to be great. Took the weekend off this weekend and went and saw some of the world’s largest dinosaur fossil tracks safely preserved (NOT!!) in the middle of a cement factory’s quarry) and going to a market in a small town of Tarabuco where they all wear funny helmets and funny hats- the story goes that this is one of the few places they defeated the conquistadores and when they did they took all their helmets- and to this day still wear them! Love this place!

Amazon Adventure

Ok, so it’s a bit late in the telling of this story, but I’ll tell it quickly and then put some photos up for you. So, about 2 weeks ago now we went to do an assessment in Pando, which is in the northern most part of Bolivia in the Amazon basin. We left from La Paz and you fly right through the middle of the Andes, with Lak Titicaca on the left and the snow capped mountain so close. Then we arrived in Pando and it is hot and tropical. The whole area is forest and rivers and is completely flooded along the rivers. To get where we needed to go we had to take an avioneta- little four seater plane. To get a better idea of the flooding we did a fly over of the flooded areas for about an hour. The landscape from above of the flooded forest and rivers looked amazing. The plane was so funny- had little pictures of Jesus and Mary on the steering wheels. When it was time to set down, we literally just landed on a little dirt street in the middle of town. No air traffic control let alone street traffic control, just pulled up and came to a stop where some locals were chatting with their bikes. From there we walked down to the river to the boats, while the pilot took off again and left us to find our way back by land and water. At the river we got into two little long boats and headed up the flooded river for about 2 hours. It was so beautiful with parrots and huge beautiful trees all the way up the river. Finally when we got to the village we were visiting, we had to take the boats in a little passage through the forest just a few metres wide to the village. In the village we did the assessment which included walking through knee deep water and mud with my colleague all the time yelling “look out for the anacondas!”. Then when we left, we had to get to the road to get a car to pick us up. To get to the road, the boats were carried a little way over the higher ground back to the roads which were flooded and we motored along in our boats over the flooded land pushing through trees and shrubs where we needed to. Then we got dropped off at the road but the car wasn’t there to pick us up so we decided to walk until either the car came or we reached the first houses. The first houses came first after about 2 hours walking in the hot sun on a road through the forest. Either side of the road was flooded and all along the way there were things to see – hundreds of butterflies all gathered to gether on the sides of the roads, a dead caiman (small crocodile), big snake tracks, what seemed like hundreds of jumping fish which flipped out of the water, birds, and then we we got to the first houses we were generously given shade and lemonade by a little old man and entertained by his grandchildren. Then the car finally arrived, a little kid got out of the car with those little baby lemurs or whatever they were turned up. We finally drove home in the moonlight and it was the end of a beautiful and adventurous day. It was everything you could imagine an Amazonian adventure would be!

Pictures of Pando

So many new friends to be had!

OK, I promise I will write a proper blog soon... like tonight, but in the meantime, check out this other new fella I found this week! Can you guess what it is?

A preview of the next blog

before I get around to writing it.... here are some little friends I met on my adventure... Are those little faces not the very prototype of Ewoks??!

Things I love about Bolivia part II

You look out the window of the office and there is the most beautiful snow covered mountain
Just like the cities of Jerusalem, Damascus and Amman, the hills are alive with lights at night and twinkle away at you
You get on the plane and one minute you are above the snow capped Andes and so close you could touch them, and in an hour later you are landing at the edge of the Amazon
The first official Amazon woman I have met lived up to expectations, big, tough, wearing jeans, t shirt and thongs and riding a motorbike! Also one of the most important politicians in the Department (state).
I have a ticket to see Manu Chao on Saturday night (ok, I already said that one last time but im counting it again cos its double exciting!)
The tropical feel of the edge of the Amazon
The way the Andes are so big they make you realize just how big mountains can be, and how small our little hills are.
The way the women wear little bowler hats that don’t seem to fit but rather perch precariously on their head.
The bounce in the skirts they wear.
The fact that in the four blocks from my hotel to the office there are funky cafes and bars playing great jazz music on a Monday night.
The fact that I got off the plane in the Amazon and got dragged to a meeting of the Federation of Campesinos (small farmers). Normally I would dread such a dull meeting, but this time they talked about land titling and big companies coming in and forcing them out of their land and cutting down the rainforest, and while I’ve heard it before especially in Asia and the Pacific, somehow in the Amazon it was like, the real thing! The thing young lefties are brought up on!
Today I went to Brazil for lunch! Just a little car ride over a bridge and we in a town called Brasileira eating the best meat lovers feast ever. You sit at the table they bring you skewer after skewer of carved meat of all types and carve what you want at the table- a bit like the yum cha of roast meat! And the most delicious passionfruit juice to go with it!
The fact that yesterday I reckon I had about the best ever adventure I’ve ever had on a work day, so much so that it deserves it’s own blog, which I will write later!
That after a trip in the field I’m back in La Paz in a hotel where the people are so nice and friendly!

Bolivia

I have exciting news!!!!

Dumdumdum…. Wait for it, drumrolll….. Manu Chao is playing in La Paz next week!!! Hooray! And I am going to go! Now, I know not many people will actually appreciate this news (though I know A&A and Gracie will!), but it’s so exciting I feel like a teenager about to go to her first rock concert. I mean, how cool is that! Seeing Manu Chao at an open air amphitheatre in Bolivia! So cool…. Anyway, yes I promise I am working hard! Back to 16 hour days 7 days a week which is why I haven’t blogged until now (having a quiet Friday night in the hotel room to recover!) but its been great so far. ok, yes, it is a disaster and lots of people are living in shit, but the work is good this time and one has to enjoy oneself sometimes when you do disasters for a living…. So for those who don’t know what the disaster is (which would be pretty much everyone cos its not really big enough to make the news) basically lots of bad weather has flooded people out of their communities and destroyed everything in the low lands and in the highlands the bad weather has destroyed crops, water systems and swept crop lands away into the river. We are organizing camps for the displaced communities etc etc. Bolivia has the Andes in the west, lowlands in the west and the amazon basin in the north. I arrived into La Paz which has an altitude of 12,000 feet, the when east to the lowlands where the camps are, and then up to the highlands again to Potosi where the famous silver mines. Now I’m back in La Paz, and going up north to the Amazon basin on Monday for 3 days. The scenery is beautiful, the food is good, the people are very lovely and helpful. The culture is colourful and fascinating. There are so many beautiful old Spanish colonial buildings. It’s just great. Oh, it was Carnaval too so we got to go dancing in the street and in every town in the country people got drunk and danced through the streets each with their own band for four days straight, more in the countryside, and threw water bombs at each other. It was so funny. And what else is really nice is that I don’t particularly feel like a foreigner sticking out like a sore thumb here like you do elsewhere. Don’t know if it’s a language things, or a cultural thing but its nice. Anyway, that’s about it for now… I’ll try and attach some photos.

Hooray for Bolivia!

Ok, sorry, really busy working but just a quick note to say I love Bolivia! It's great!! anyway, will write more when i have more time....